"They're Already Here." New Trailer for "War of the Worlds"

[UdoKier]

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/waroftheworlds/large.html

Watch as the upper-middle-class suburbanites emerge from their tidy homes and watch the explosions just beyond the horizon with mounting dread...





Why does Steven Spielberg so strongly identify with the petit bourgeois? And why is a liberal democrat making a movie that so nicely dovetails with the fearmongering over the "War on Terror"?

I know I'm making too much over what is "just a movie", but I am so damn sick of these movie directors like Spielberg and John Hughes who apparently are unaware that not everyone in America is white, suburban with a low 6 figure salary.

Look at his protagonists;

Minority Report : White, upscale yupster with cool apartment
A.I. : White, Rich family in the exurbs
E.T. : Upper-middle-class white widow/divorcee-led family
Poltergeist: Upper-middle class white family
Close Encounters: ACTUAL MIDDLE-MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES!

And so on.

Do these people ever use working people as anything but props in their stupid blockbusters?

Did I just get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

[UdoKier]

1. So, no comments?

At least tell me I'm nuts, somebody!

[Aiptasia]

2. Poltergeist was directed by toby hooper

But steven did produce it. Silver medal attempt.

You forget Jaws (middle class), Empire of the Sun (upper middle class), 1941 (all classes, but mostly middle) and Shindler's List (poor, middle class).


Oh, and who was it that directed "The Color Purple?" How about "Amistad?"

Ooopsie, forgot those huh.

Yeah, I think it's just you. Get off Steven's back. A.I. was a takeover job for him because Stanley Kubrick died before he could finish the project. In fact, I think it's more disturbing that you forget he's done such amazing work with supporting jewish and black culture. So, yeah.. it's you.

[UdoKier]

4. Seemed like a lot of the jews in Schindler's List were well-off.

Until the Nazis robbed them blind, of course. Anyway, I rally like that one, so I didn't want to rag on it.

[Worst Username Ever]

3. It is not what they identify, it is the demographic they are targeting.

Who is most likely to see this type of movie? The suburban white folks. It is unlikely that the latino inner city youth is going to be pumped up to see War of the Worlds (although he most certainly may be). The characters are going to be made up of people that the DEMOGRAPHIC is most likely to identify with, not spielberg. Why weren't any of the Jedi Knights in Star Wars black? There was Lando, but he was a traitor. It is the demographic.

The same goes for other demographics, too. When Barber Shop came out, one could easily say that not all black people are loud, laughing, strongly opinionated people. But there are targeting a demographic.

[UdoKier]

5. There was a black Jedi - Mace Windu.

And I don't mind some "demographic targeting". It's just so relentless and consistent, and the product ends up so damned homogenous and always serves to puff up the bougeois' false image of itself as "normal", "good" and "wholesome".

[Aiptasia]

6. Anyone who doesn't think "The Color Purple" was amazing

Is just insane. I was so pissed off at the Academy that year for completely snubbing that movie in every catagory.

It deserved best picture, best actor, best actress, best supporting actress and best director, but as I recall, wasn't even nominated for any of them.

[UdoKier]

8. Yes, "Color Purple" was good.

Spileberg does better work when he's working within the confines of a novel, like "Jurassic Park".

I still think his overwhelming bias is for white bourgeois people.

I also really bristled at the connotations of the line "They're already here."

All I could think of was how subconsciously that must play into the terrorism fears many middle-class suburban cattle must have.

[Worst Username Ever]

10. Good point on Mace,

but I have to be honest, I think he is kind of the "token," as bad as it sounds... like the black woman on the original star trek (they took care of their minority and female presence, all in one character! How nice...) Go to a sci-fi convention sometime, you can count the black people on two hands, most likely. That is all I meant, there is not usually a huge minority interest in these movies, and most theaters/moveigoers are in the suburbs anyway. All about the cashflow with these guys.

I LOVED the remake of Dawn of the Dead, but check out the two black characters: Stereotypical angry/independent/muscle bound black guys. Demographic targeting, everywhere. Oh, and the whole movie took place in a nice little white bread milwaukee suburb. In a mall.

[UdoKier]

11. I loved "Dawn of the Dead" too.

But I thought the Ving Rhames character seemed pretty smart and cool under pressure. Sure, he's musclebound, he's Ving Rhames, but I thought he seemed in character for a cop who had been through some rough shit. He seemed a lot more intelligent than the blonde bimbette or the Thurston Howell III guy.

But I digress, while it's true that most sci-fi fans are white, by no means are they exclusively middle-class suburbanites.

Besides, even if you ARE a middle-class suburbanite, why would you want to see nothing but films about you and your neighbors? Would you be unable to identify with city dwellers or a mom who raises two kids while working a job at Rite Aid and another at Burger King?

Is this a Great Depression type thing where we all just supposedly want escapist fantasy?

[Worst Username Ever]

14. I believe you overestimate "joe suburbanite."

Sure, you and I may want to see/think of other persectives, but I don't have that much faith in the average american, and I don't think studio execs do either. I really do think that people prefer to be in their secure little cubby holes of life where none of that bad people can get them. Going to a movie and seeing someone just like them overcoming some incredible circumstance is undoubtedly a large thrill.

I agree with you about Ving, but I still picture some "security mom" watching that movie and being amazed that a *gasp* BLACK man could be such a strong leader, instead of just looking at his character as being another human being trapped in a situation out of his control. What I mean is he does not just play a character, but he is there to play a *black* character. If you have someone just playing "the slut," she will undoubtedly be white. You would only cast a black woman if you wanted a BLACK slut, etc.

Not sure if I'm making any sense, and am probably digressing a bit from my other post but whateva.

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. Um, it's "Minority Report."

I don't remember seeing Jeneane Garofalo in that one, either.

[UdoKier]

9. Oops! Too much AAR!

But think how much better it would have been with Janeane in it!

[DrWeird]

12. I thought the white suburbia thing was sort of a "blank slate"

I thought in Poltergeist it was particularly strong, almost a statment against the homogeneity of white suburbia.

As for Minority Report, I didn't care, thought it was crap. A.I. you didn't really get a sense of what class the characters were in, since it was in a reasonably distant future, but the father figure was an important scientist, so that had more to do with plot continuity. E.T. I thought was middle middle class. Struggling single working mom. The only difference between E.T. and CEotTK was a suburban/rural divide.

[UdoKier]

13. Single mom with a huge new house in a Bay Area suburb?

Decidedly NOT middle class in my worldview. Much better-off than average, IMO.